How to Undo Pivot Table in Excel

A Pivot Table can transform a daunting wall of data into a clear, interactive summary in seconds. But what happens when you’re done with the summary and just want your original data back in a simple format, or what if you made a mistake and just want to undo it? Reverting a Pivot Table isn't as straightforward as creating one, but with a few simple techniques, you'll be able to get back to a standard data range without any fuss. This article will walk you through several easy methods for undoing, reverting, and removing a Pivot Table in Excel.

Using the Undo Command (For Immediate Reversal)

The simplest way to undo the creation of a Pivot Table is the universal command for undoing anything in Excel: Ctrl + Z (or Cmd + Z on a Mac). This is your go-to option when you have an immediate change of heart.

When This Method Works Best:

This method is only effective if creating the Pivot Table was the very last action you took. If you've continued to work, added fields, applied filters, or saved and closed the workbook, the "undo" history is cleared, and this command won't work to remove the entire Pivot Table. It's meant for the "oops, I clicked the wrong button" moments.

How to Do It:

Keyboard Shortcut: As soon as you've created the Pivot Table, simply press Ctrl + Z on your keyboard. The Pivot Table will disappear, and you’ll see the selection box where you initiated its creation.
Quick Access Toolbar: Alternatively, you can click the "Undo" arrow icon, which is usually located in the top-left corner of the Excel window. Clicking this will reverse your last action.

Remember, this is a quick fix for an immediate mistake. If you've already done more work, you'll need one of the following methods.

How to Revert a Pivot Table Back to a Data Range

Often, "undoing" a Pivot Table doesn't mean deleting it, but rather extracting its underlying data into a new, normal table format. Maybe you want to perform different calculations, sort differently, or just have a non-pivot version of the data. The best and quickest method for this is a little-known Excel trick.

The "Double-Click a Grand Total" Method

This is by far the most powerful and efficient method for reverting a Pivot Table's source data back into a standard, filterable range. When you double-click the Grand Total cell of a Pivot Table, Excel automatically extracts all the source data used to create that table and places it in a brand new worksheet.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Locate the Grand Total Cell

Open the worksheet containing your Pivot Table. Look for the "Grand Total" summary. You'll typically find a Grand Total at the bottom of the sum of your columns and at the far right of the sum of your rows. For this trick to pull all the data, you need to use the final Grand Total - the one that summarizes both rows and columns. This is usually the cell in the bottom-right corner of the numerical data. For example, if you have Sales by Region (rows) and by Quarter (columns), the bottom-right Grand Total cell represents the total sales for all regions across all quarters.

2. Double-Click the Cell

Move your cursor over this final Grand Total cell and simply double-click it.

3. Review the New Worksheet

Instantly, Excel will generate a new worksheet populated with all the raw data that your Pivot Table was referencing. This new sheet is not a Pivot Table, it's a completely normal, flat table of data. Excel is even smart enough to format it as an official "Excel Table" for you, which means it already has filtering and sorting controls enabled in the header row.

Why this Method is a Favorite:

It's non-destructive. Your original Pivot Table and your original source data worksheet remain completely untouched. You're just creating a new copy of the source data.
It's incredibly fast. It’s the single quickest way to get a clean data set extracted from a Pivot Table.
It preserves all your data. The newly created table will contain every row and column from your original dataset.

Copy a Pivot Table and Paste as Values

Sometimes you don't need the original raw data - you just want the summarized version a Pivot Table gives you, but in a static, non-interactive format. This is extremely useful for presentations or reports where you want to display the finalized summary without the risk of someone accidentally altering the pivot fields.

Copying the table and pasting its values gives you a "frozen" snapshot of the Pivot Table's final output.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Select Your Entire Pivot Table

Click anywhere inside your Pivot Table. Then, go to the "PivotTable Analyze" tab in the ribbon. On the far left, click the "Actions" drop-down menu, then choose "Select," and finally "Entire PivotTable." This ensures you've selected every part of it, including headers and totals. An alternative is to click a cell in the table and press Ctrl + A (or Cmd + A on Mac). Sometimes you might have to press it twice to select the entire table.

2. Copy the Selection

Once selected, copy the table to your clipboard by pressing Ctrl + C (or Cmd + C on Mac).

3. Choose a Destination and Use Paste Special

Click on an empty cell where you want to place your static data. This can be in a different area of the same worksheet or in a new sheet entirely. Now, instead of a simple paste (Ctrl + V), you need to use Paste Special:

Right-click the destination cell and look for the "Paste Options" icons. The one you want often looks like a clipboard with "123" on it.
Alternatively, press Ctrl + Alt + V (Windows) or Cmd + Control + V (Mac) to open the Paste Special dialog box.

4. Select "Values" or a Combination

In the Paste Special dialog box, you have several choices:

Values: This is the most common option. It pastes only the text and numbers, stripping away all Pivot Table formatting and functionality.
Values & Number Formats: This is a great choice as it keeps your raw numbers but preserves the formatting (like currency symbols, percentages, and decimal places).
Values & Source Formatting: This option will also try to replicate the original colors, fonts, and cell styles of the Pivot Table.

Select your desired option and click "OK." You now have a static summary table - a perfect snapshot of your Pivot Table's analysis.

How to Completely Delete a Pivot Table

If your goal is simply to remove the Pivot Table from your worksheet for good, the process is quite simple. This is useful when a Pivot Table is just taking up space and you only need the original source data, which is safely stored on another sheet.

Method 1: Select and Delete with a Single Keystroke

This is often the most direct method if it works for your spreadsheet's structure.

Click anywhere inside the Pivot Table.
Go to the “PivotTable Analyze” tab in the ribbon.
Click Actions > Select > Entire PivotTable.
Press the Delete key on your keyboard.

This should clear the Pivot Table from the workbook. In some versions of Excel, this might remove the data but leave a ghost of the PivotTable format behind. If that happens, the next method is more foolproof.

Method 2: Delete the Hosting Rows or Columns

The most surefire way to entirely eliminate a Pivot Table and all its formatting is to delete the rows or columns that contain it.

Identify the rows and columns that your entire Pivot Table occupies.
Highlight these rows or columns by clicking on their corresponding Letters (A, B, C...) or Numbers (1, 2, 3...) in the Excel frame. If you need to select multiple, click the first one and then hold the Shift key while you click the last one to select the whole range.
Right-click on the highlighted area.
Select "Delete" from the context menu.

By deleting the rows or columns themselves, you forcefully remove every part of the Pivot Table, ensuring no fragments are left behind.

A Quick Note on Source Data Integrity

It's important to remember a key principle of Pivot Tables: they don't change your original source data.

A Pivot Table is a summary layer that sits on top of your data, pulling from it to create its report. Deleting, reverting, or 'undoing' a Pivot Table will never delete or harm your source data worksheet. The source data remains safe and sound wherever it's located, ready to be used again. This is a common point of anxiety for new Excel users, so rest assured that your raw data is always secure during this process.

Final Thoughts

Mastering how to dismantle or get data out of a Pivot Table is just as useful as knowing how to create one. For a quick mistake, Ctrl + Z is your friend. To extract the raw source data into a fresh table, the double-click-on-the-grand-total trick is a game-changer. And for creating static reports, copying and pasting as values gives you the perfect snapshot. You are now fully equipped to manage your Pivot Tables with confidence.

This entire workflow - exporting data, building Pivot Tables to summarize it, and then reverting them back to raw data for different reports - is a common symptom of manual data reporting. We find the constant need to pull data from different sources and reshape it in spreadsheets to be one of the biggest time sinks for marketing and sales teams. Instead of this manual cycle, we built Graphed to automate the entire process. Just connect your platforms (like Google Analytics, Shopify, Facebook Ads, or HubSpot) one time, and then use simple natural language to build live, interactive dashboards that always stay up to date. It's like having the full power of Pivot Tables and beyond, but without any of the manual wrangling.